By Jacob Dugopolski, Erik Forman, Rebecca Macklis, Alexa Mendel, Delma Palma, Doug Rose, Ashley Smith, Trax Wang
Bureaucratic hurdles to hiring and retaining civil servants hinder the ability to create and maintain affordable housing. Despite recent improvements in staffing agency vacancies, New York City lacks a long-term solution for attracting, upskilling, and retaining a workforce that serves critical functions in housing production. At the same time, overlapping building codes and regulations heavily constrain the feasibility of small to medium-sized housing development.
Lessons from Kazakhstan, Singapore, and Tokyo
Talent Retention in Civil Service: Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan’s transition to a post-Soviet country, professionalization of civil service emerged as a priority. Innovations included a competency management system and Common Competency Framework (CCF) to establish consistency in recruitment, training, and promotion across agencies. A pay for performance (P4P) model aligned civil service salaries with those in the public sector, incentivizing careers in civil service.
Fostering Leadership & Growth in Civil Service: Singapore
Singapore’s Public Service Division (PSD) supports workforce and leadership development to help civil servants enter, grow, and lead in the public sector. The Public Service Commision scholarship program provides a pipeline of talent who enter the Civil Service after graduation. Salaries of high-ranking civil servants in Singapore are pegged to private sector salaries, attracting talent, reducing attrition, and dissuading corruption. The National Bonus framework distributes performance bonuses based on Singapore’s economic success via Real Median Income Growth Rate, Real Growth Rate of the Lowest 20th Percentile Income, Unemployment Rate, and Real GDP Growth Rate.
Zoning for Flexibility & Building Codes for Performance: Tokyo
Housing stock in Tokyo has nearly tripled in the last 50 years compared to New York City’s 19% growth rate. Japan’s national zoning code includes only twelve zones from low-rise residential to industrial and provides a flexible framework for growth. Residential construction is broadly allowed and zoning envelopes are very accommodating, resulting in innovation and a dynamic mix of housing typologies on every street. Three key features of Tokyo’s code are: flexibility for middle density buildings; a performance-based building code with standards rather than prescriptive rules; and a two to six week permit approval process (compared with New York’s three to twelve months).
Big Swings for New York City
Simplify and Modernize Civil Service
- Remove cumbersome civil service exam requirements and barriers such as fees and infrequent exam dates that limit ability to fill high-priority positions in housing fields.
- Modernize pay and benefits by creating pay parity with the private sector, providing bonuses or pay for performance, and offering flexibility such as a four-day workweek.
- Implement technology solutions by upgrading software and providing training to improve interagency coordination, task efficiency, and information access.
Promote Cost-effective and Site-Adaptive Medium Density Housing Development
- Expand point access by increasing the floor area maximum for new residential buildings to allow for single-stair access up to six stories.
- Revise the elevator code and local law requirements to enable right-sized elevators and cost-effective engineering systems which will result in more affordable mid-size construction.
- Encourage flexibility in NYC Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) guidelines and the NYS Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) to favor performance over dimensions and clearance requirements in order to enable site-specific optimization of units
- Streamline building approval processes by building upon ongoing initiatives to modernize and streamline approval platforms under a single submission to reduce approval timelines.
Fellows
Jacob Dugopolski
Erik Forman
Rebecca Macklis
Alexa Mendel
Delma Palma
Doug Rose
Ashley Smith
